Houston, TX = The Texas Pastor Council issued the following response to the 5-4 decision today by the Supreme Court of the United States in favor of Hobby Lobby in their challenge to the contraception mandate element of Obamacare. TXPC is an inter-ethic, inter-denominational coalition involving teams of pastors in cities across the state.

“The victory for Hobby Lobby today is a victory for basic freedom and in particular the right to exercise our religious beliefs outside the walls of the church building as intended by our Founding Fathers. The Supreme Court’s decision was based on the premise that First Amendment protections that were further defined in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, passed by a near unanimous and bi-partisan vote in both House and Senate and signed by President Bill Clinton, were violated by the Obamacare contraception mandate.

They specifically said that the Obama administration failed to prove that the mandate was the least restrictive means of providing free contraceptive services. While we do not agree that there exists any constitutional right to taxpayer funded or employer mandated contraception, we of course agree wholeheartedly and applaud the five members who voted to apply the Constitution and the law that defends citizens from tyranny by our own government. Once again, we were only one vote away from further advancement of a police state imposed in violation of Biblical and constitutional principles.

This is only one of many such issues we face in which many levels of our government are being used as weapons of mass deconstruction again citizens who hold to Judeo-Christian values that include the sanctity of innocent life from conception until natural death, the sanctity of traditional marriage as only between one man and one woman and that our sex is identified at birth, not assigned, and is unchangeable.

We enthusiastically applaud the Hahn family, owners of Conestoga Wood Specialties, and the Green family, owners of Hobby Lobby for vigorously defending the freedoms paid for by the blood of patriots. We also express deep gratitude for the outstanding legal teams from Alliance Defending Freedom and Becket Fund for Religious Liberty for their excellent work on all our behalf.”